No Limits

I have been planning to compete in the Spartan Race for some time. It is kind of an obstacle run with many walls to be jumped over, many hills, ropes and rope ladders to be climbed, ditches and rivers to be crossed and other more and less treacherous obstructions to be overcome. After running several ultra marathons I felt I needed another challenge, which would make it necessary for me to do more strength workout instead of losing more and more muscle substance with long distance running only. After some time of “getting used to the idea”, the choice fell on the Spartan Race in Spain, Saint Augustin near Madrid.

I have to confess: I wasn’t prepared nearly as good as I was for my ultra marathons in the past. Due to numerous (mainly health related) problems in the preceding period, I actually wasn’t able to do any of the needed strength workout and I only sporadically could do running training. You can see it in my “curves” on the video below. Maybe I didn’t take the competition too seriously, since it definitely looked less serious to me than any of my ultra marathons, although some of the participants told me completing Spartan Race was the greatest achievement of their lives.

The moment of truth came in May 2016. The fate made me a surprise in order to toughen it up a little bit. Read the rest of this entry »